The first week or so of Major League action has brought with it controversies, shocks, and disappointments that have some fanbases already crowning their teams or calling it quits. Baseball in 2026 began with a bizarre opening night game between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants broadcast on Netflix. The proceedings felt less like a baseball game and more like an award show or variety special you would see on Netflix, with celebrities stationed in pseudo hot dog stands near the dugouts. It was a brand of pageantry that baseball fans didn’t particularly respond to, especially when Netflix cut away from live action for recaps or promos. As soon as we were allowed to forget that monstrosity, plenty of standout performers and performances have revealed themselves in the early goings of the 2026 Major League Baseball season.
They say making it to the big leagues and performing is difficult, but the show appears to have given a few new faces fantastic starts to their MLB careers. Rookie sensation and Cleveland Guardians right fielder Chase DeLauter has developed quite an aptitude for the long ball, mashing five home runs in just his first seven games. One of these included a three-run slap shot turned towering fly ball that he sent out of the yard with haste into Cleveland’s amber dusk during the Guardians home opener against the Chicago Cubs. On Chicago’s South Side, the previously lowly White Sox, denizens of the unfortunately named Rate Field, glow alight courtesy of Japan’s Munetaka Murakami, an infielder that the Sox lured away from Nippon Professional Baseball’s Tokyo Yakult Swallows. Over the weekend, Murakami became the fastest Japanese player to hit four home runs in the Major Leagues, with three of those coming in consecutive games. Hopefully, the White Sox can parlay this major addition into sustained team success as they begin the climb out of the American League Central cellar.
During the second game of the Los Angeles Angels’ first series at home against the defending AL West champion Seattle Mariners, we saw a sterling and singular effort from Angels outfielder Jo Adell, who decided to don a cape in right field Saturday night. Adell, 26, took three runs off the board for Seattle with his glove alone. Two wall-scaling leaps in the first and eighth innings to take away a trip around the bases for Mariners sluggers Cal Raleigh and Josh Naylor would have been enough, but Adell accomplished the truly impossible in the top of the ninth. After a high line drive by Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford drifted toward the stands behind the foul pole in right field, Adell tracked it down and sent his glove nearly into the third row to come up with a generational snag that sent him over the boundary and into the protective screen.
The Pittsburgh Pirates, unfortunately, did not make a very good first impression in front of the home crowd, particularly centerfielder Oneil Cruz. Cruz lost a routine fly ball in the sun in centerfield, and got a bad jump at another ball in play near the warning track. Pirates’ opening day starter Paul Skenes was chased from the game because of Cruz’s blunders, being shockingly pulled before the end of the first inning. Yankees slugger Aaron Judge began inauspiciously, striking out four times on opening day and batting well below .200 for his first few games. He has since rebounded with three home runs and seven runs batted in as of Sunday. AL MVP runner-up and Mariners switch-hitting catcher Cal Raleigh has also struggled with strikeouts in his opening week and has yet to record his first home run of the year.
While Boston Red Sox right fielder Roman Anthony claims there’s nothing to fear in Fenway, the Red Sox are 2-6 to begin the year as of Saturday, with a defense that is averaging an error per game. Offseason missteps have left the fan base restless, and there is tremendous pressure on the squad to turn things around so that they can at least compete with their rivals in the Bronx. Another club whose season has launched about as successfully as a drunken roman candle is the Athletics, as they rot away in a minor league park in Sacramento, comically plastered with signs(and embroidered uniform patches) that read “Visit Las Vegas.” Their bats have gone completely dead, save for catcher Shea Langeliers, who has posted a .300 batting average with five home runs thus far. Between the A’s and the NBA’s woeful Sacramento Kings, it might be worth doing a wellness check on the entire city at this point.
A lurching start for the San Francisco Giants has raised questions in the Bay Area as the team begins the Tony Vitello era. Vitello is the first Major League manager to be plucked directly from the college ranks after success with the Tennessee Volunteers baseball program. Supposed power bats like new signing Luis Arraez and last year’s biggest mid-season acquisition, Rafael Devers, have yet to materialize. It might take the boys in orange and black a few more weeks to find their groove, but the turnaround will have to be drastic.
The baseball gods dealt an interesting hand to major league clubs across the country this week, gifting a hot start to some and a rough re-entry for others. It’s truly the time of the season when hope soars in the hearts of fans and morale crumbles in the stomachs of others.
Featured image: Los Angeles Times
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